The book retailer heavyweight has had so much trouble selling the Simple Touch, it’s trying to give it away as part of a limited promotion going on from March 24 until March 30, 2013. B&N may have had a rough time selling the lower-end model as consumers seem to be more in favor of more general-purpose tablets, like the iPad or the Kindle.

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At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

It's hard to think of any Nook that's not a good product. B&N seemed to be doing all the right things - they were the first major brand to market a cheap tablet (the original Nook Color, that could be rooted and have CM installed and shipped over 18 months before the Nexus 7) and first with an internally-lit eInk screen. Their prices were always reasonable, if not always absolute bottom-dollar. The only real complaints were quibbles about a lack of polish.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

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The e-reader market is a brutal one, given that the company that dominates sells its goods at or below cost (with media sales making all the money). With that sort of market dynamic and that sort of pricing, you've got to dominate the market if you expect to ever make money. Doesn't leave much room for multiple different competitors.

It would be a shame to see Nook fail. That'd leave an effective monopoly of e-books in Amazon's hands (I think Play Books and iBooks have pretty small market share), and effective monopolies are always bad for consumers.

The ebook market isn't going anywhere soon. Most people already have a tablet and a cellphone, carrying a dedicated e-reader is often more hassle than its worth. They were born because tablets used to be bulky, rather slow and had short battery life, and won't be able to compete with future tablets at all. I'm not saying it'll die out, but it will be a niche product for people with specific purposes, such as people traveling in remote areas. B&N should drop the Nook reader altogether. They're not going to win against Amazon, and even the latter is migrating towards multimedia tablets.

At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

It's hard to think of any Nook that's not a good product. B&N seemed to be doing all the right things - they were the first major brand to market a cheap tablet (the original Nook Color, that could be rooted and have CM installed and shipped over 18 months before the Nexus 7) and first with an internally-lit eInk screen. Their prices were always reasonable, if not always absolute bottom-dollar. The only real complaints were quibbles about a lack of polish.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

This is unfortunate, but the NOOK Simple Touch was undermined fairly quickly by the Simple Touch with GlowLight.

The latter is $40 more, but you don't need to buy a clip on light to read it in low/no light conditions, and is slightly lighter.

I'm not sure if they simply made too many of the Simple Touch and just need to dump inventory or if it's just that unpopular compared to their other models. I'm hoping they just made too many. The GlowLight version seems like a great secondary device that would be good if you just wanted to load up a series of books and just read for a few days. But having started with a color device, I've been spoiled by the Nook HD's screen so the Simple Touch wouldn't be my primary device.

Still either one is a better device for pure reading than anything Apple or Amazon have.

I have a Nook Color and Nook HD, and they're great devices. B&N needs to be faster on making popular apps available in their store, and do a much better job of keeping those apps updated, or just let the apps update themselves. Evernote for example keeps telling me there's updates, but B&N's custom OS won't allow it to install.

But my biggest issue, and this may be an Android issue, is they don't let you store paid content on an SD card. You can sideload, but I want to keep my library on microSD.

The ebook market isn't going anywhere soon. Most people already have a tablet and a cellphone, carrying a dedicated e-reader is often more hassle than its worth. They were born because tablets used to be bulky, rather slow and had short battery life, and won't be able to compete with future tablets at all. I'm not saying it'll die out, but it will be a niche product for people with specific purposes, such as people traveling in remote areas. B&N should drop the Nook reader altogether. They're not going to win against Amazon, and even the latter is migrating towards multimedia tablets.

The niche that a low cost e-reader can fulfill is that it's not a tragedy if you lose or damage it.

BTW I would have liked B&N to have kept the cellular connection like on the original.

The e-reader market is a brutal one, given that the company that dominates sells its goods at or below cost (with media sales making all the money). With that sort of market dynamic and that sort of pricing, you've got to dominate the market if you expect to ever make money. Doesn't leave much room for multiple different competitors.

It would be a shame to see Nook fail. That'd leave an effective monopoly of e-books in Amazon's hands (I think Play Books and iBooks have pretty small market share), and effective monopolies are always bad for consumers.

Can you explain how one can have an effective monopoly of e books?

I have seen other people claim that, but it has never made any sense.

Would be like saying Google with Blogger will have an effective monopoly of Blogs.

The content creators have a lot more power now with the net, since you don't need the large infrastructure that has been controlled by a handful of publishers of books and news, than they ever have had in the past.

Anyone with access to the net & ability to write can get ebooks out there, I have couple of friends that have done that, paid for view or download of full book past sample chapter for one, he has since sold a series or two to Baen.

While the other friend has sold couple non fiction essays, that he originally posted as blog posts.

This friend has not sold fiction yet, but has won a minor prize or two in writing contests with his fiction, and certainly gets some additional blog revenue from his fiction.

That is without Amazon, Amazon also makes it easy for people to self publish with Amazon, and you set the prices.

Self Published with Amazon give author a much higher cut of the sales, than the traditional dead tree publishers ever did.

The ebook market isn't going anywhere soon. Most people already have a tablet and a cellphone, carrying a dedicated e-reader is often more hassle than its worth. They were born because tablets used to be bulky, rather slow and had short battery life, and won't be able to compete with future tablets at all. I'm not saying it'll die out, but it will be a niche product for people with specific purposes, such as people traveling in remote areas. B&N should drop the Nook reader altogether. They're not going to win against Amazon, and even the latter is migrating towards multimedia tablets.

The niche that a low cost e-reader can fulfill is that it's not a tragedy if you lose or damage it.

BTW I would have liked B&N to have kept the cellular connection like on the original.

It's much more than that. If you're a heavy reader, you want an e-reader, not a tablet. Unless you don't mind that your eyes fall off.

The e-reader market is a brutal one, given that the company that dominates sells its goods at or below cost (with media sales making all the money). With that sort of market dynamic and that sort of pricing, you've got to dominate the market if you expect to ever make money. Doesn't leave much room for multiple different competitors.

It would be a shame to see Nook fail. That'd leave an effective monopoly of e-books in Amazon's hands (I think Play Books and iBooks have pretty small market share), and effective monopolies are always bad for consumers.

Can you explain how one can have an effective monopoly of e books?

I have seen other people claim that, but it has never made any sense.

Would be like saying Google with Blogger will have an effective monopoly of Blogs.

The content creators have a lot more power now with the net, since you don't need the large infrastructure that has been controlled by a handful of publishers of books and news, than they ever have had in the past.

Anyone with access to the net & ability to write can get ebooks out there, I have couple of friends that have done that, paid for view or download of full book past sample chapter for one, he has since sold a series or two to Baen.

While the other friend has sold couple non fiction essays, that he originally posted as blog posts.

This friend has not sold fiction yet, but has won a minor prize or two in writing contests with his fiction, and certainly gets some additional blog revenue from his fiction.

That is without Amazon, Amazon also makes it easy for people to self publish with Amazon, and you set the prices.

Self Published with Amazon give author a much higher cut of the sales, than the traditional dead tree publishers ever did.

[edited for spelling & etc]

What's at stake here is that Amazon uses a proprietary e-book format, one that you can't read in other e-readers other than Kindle (unless you know what you're doing). So if the nook and other e-readers got bumped out and the Kindle were the only reader available, Amazon could drop support from their e-readers for other formats other than their own and hence leave other e-book retailers without a market.

In other words, ebook retailers need their e-readers to create a market for their e-books.

The ebook market isn't going anywhere soon. Most people already have a tablet and a cellphone, carrying a dedicated e-reader is often more hassle than its worth. They were born because tablets used to be bulky, rather slow and had short battery life, and won't be able to compete with future tablets at all. I'm not saying it'll die out, but it will be a niche product for people with specific purposes, such as people traveling in remote areas. B&N should drop the Nook reader altogether. They're not going to win against Amazon, and even the latter is migrating towards multimedia tablets.

The niche that a low cost e-reader can fulfill is that it's not a tragedy if you lose or damage it.

BTW I would have liked B&N to have kept the cellular connection like on the original.

It's much more than that. If you're a heavy reader, you want an e-reader, not a tablet. Unless you don't mind that your eyes fall off.

Which is why I hang onto my E-ink E-reader. Most people don't realize how good it is until they try it. The B&N giveaway may just do that.

It's a shame to see this development. I have a Nook Simple Touch, and it's a really nice little device. I've tried a couple of the Kindle models, and they just didn't reach me like the Nook does.

It'll be a real same to see this go the way it really seems to be going. It'll be a problem moving forward - my "Nook" books will be locked onto that device and any other device upon which I currently have the Nook app. After those devices die or obsolete... what?

Guess that's one area where paper still holds an advantage, however slim.

At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

The Simple Touch is very nice, I like it better than my original Nook. It's light, has a nice easy to grip casing, and it still has buttons even though it supports touch (buttons work with one hand, touch is a bit tough to use that way).

When it comes to book selection I'd rather be Kindle, but Nook's hardware is nicer.

While I agree with the sentiment that much of our fast food is terrible, people are going to want food and often they'll want quick and convenient food. I'd expect fast food to be the last of all of that to die off.

The Nook is my preferred reader and I usually have a novel going all the time. With my Nook it is sometimes a pain to get the epub books I own onto it even with the SD card. It seems a bit finicky using the Nook reader program on my PC and syncing it. New books are easier to get on it and deal with. I still love the option to put my owned books on the reader though and I am not sure I could do that with a Kindle or if I could, then how complicated it would be. I tend to use my nook for reading more than I use my tablet or even regular books.

The books certainly are a bit easier to read on my tablet with the black on white or white on black back-lit, however the battery life is an issue and it is quite a bit heavier. Getting books on the tablet and using Aldiko Reader is very simple though. It's simple and bright but again a bit too heavy for everyday use.

Had thought about upgrading to one of the lighted Nooks, but as long as mine works in the proper light or with the attached light, I guess I am OK with it. Would be a shame for them to stop making the Nook or only carrying the Nook Color Android type Tablets (which have a beautiful screen and seem nice but heavy) as a simple reader for novels is the way to go for me. Hope they can continue to offer this type simple reader.

Can't stand my Nook Simple Touch. Waste of $99. Contrast too poor to read for long even when very brightly lit. I'd consider switching to those new paperwhite e-ink readers.

It never did quite what I wanted it to do — no way to share quotes from side-loaded books, no sync to a desktop app, hard to load without running Calibre, plus the touch screen was super frustratingly finicky.

When it comes to book selection I'd rather be Kindle, but Nook's hardware is nicer.

True. And that's exactly B&N's problem: their tablets are too nice for their own good. I bought a Nook Color during a trip to the U.S. when it came out. At the time, it had a fantastic price for value ratio: nice screen, nice built, slightly underpowered. Rooting it and replacing the system with Cyanogenmod was so easy. I used it as a tablet and as initiation to Android, and was very happy with it. Never bought a single ebook with the device, if only because they did not allow customers outside North America.

On the other hand, I also happen to have a Kindle. I rooted it of course but there is nothing interesting to do with it. The sole practical pupose of the Kindle is to read ebooks, and it serves Amazon's interests well.

B&N focused too much on the hardware, whereas Amazon is king of the supply chain and on how to get you to consume their products.

At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

It's hard to think of any Nook that's not a good product. B&N seemed to be doing all the right things - they were the first major brand to market a cheap tablet (the original Nook Color, that could be rooted and have CM installed and shipped over 18 months before the Nexus 7) and first with an internally-lit eInk screen. Their prices were always reasonable, if not always absolute bottom-dollar. The only real complaints were quibbles about a lack of polish.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

I had the first Nook Color. As you said it was great for the price and with CM on it I was quite happy. But the next generation onwards they decided to lock it down tight and I think that was a really bad move. The Nook ecosystem out of the box is horrible. Free apps are almost non-existent and paid apps are much more expensive than the same app on IOS, Android or Win8. It's price gouging, which you can only get away with if you have absolute control over the market. Which B&N did not.

Why buy a Nook when you can buy a better spec Nexus 7 for similar price? Why get locked into the "world according to B&N" when you can have the open wide spaces of Android (privacy not included of course)?

The e-reader market is a brutal one, given that the company that dominates sells its goods at or below cost (with media sales making all the money). With that sort of market dynamic and that sort of pricing, you've got to dominate the market if you expect to ever make money. Doesn't leave much room for multiple different competitors.

It would be a shame to see Nook fail. That'd leave an effective monopoly of e-books in Amazon's hands (I think Play Books and iBooks have pretty small market share), and effective monopolies are always bad for consumers.

Not only that but if people wish to preserve Barnes and Noble's book stores they should be supporting Nook. I don't want to see what happened to Borders happen to Barnes and Noble. Such book stores are an important part of communities and they should be supported. The thought of more stores being closed due to online shops is a depressing one.

People complain about Walmart, and rightly so, for being allowed to expand too much and the result being smaller stores being run out of business but Amazon is much worse. The Amazon business model would have most neighborhood stores shutting down. It's ridiculous.

When it comes to book selection I'd rather be Kindle, but Nook's hardware is nicer.

True. And that's exactly B&N's problem: their tablets are too nice for their own good. I bought a Nook Color during a trip to the U.S. when it came out. At the time, it had a fantastic price for value ratio: nice screen, nice built, slightly underpowered. Rooting it and replacing the system with Cyanogenmod was so easy. I used it as a tablet and as initiation to Android, and was very happy with it. Never bought a single ebook with the device, if only because they did not allow customers outside North America.

On the other hand, I also happen to have a Kindle. I rooted it of course but there is nothing interesting to do with it. The sole practical pupose of the Kindle is to read ebooks, and it serves Amazon's interests well.

B&N focused too much on the hardware, whereas Amazon is king of the supply chain and on how to get you to consume their products.

Unlike Amazon Barnes and Noble is a dedicated bookstore that has been in the book business for over 100 years so I am quite sure it got a handle on the "supply chain" of the book industry and market long before Amazon did.

The only reason for Amazon's success is because it is willing to make zero profit on a product or service to run others out of a particular business.

But the next generation onwards they decided to lock it down tight and I think that was a really bad move.

Absolutely. The attempt to mimic Apple's totalitarian approach was sheer arrogance. You can, however, get CM10 running on the HDs by using the SD card as detailed here. Not as good as a proper ROM flash, but at least it's something.

The e-reader market is a brutal one, given that the company that dominates sells its goods at or below cost (with media sales making all the money). With that sort of market dynamic and that sort of pricing, you've got to dominate the market if you expect to ever make money. Doesn't leave much room for multiple different competitors.

It would be a shame to see Nook fail. That'd leave an effective monopoly of e-books in Amazon's hands (I think Play Books and iBooks have pretty small market share), and effective monopolies are always bad for consumers.

Can you explain how one can have an effective monopoly of e books?

I have seen other people claim that, but it has never made any sense.

Would be like saying Google with Blogger will have an effective monopoly of Blogs.

The content creators have a lot more power now with the net, since you don't need the large infrastructure that has been controlled by a handful of publishers of books and news, than they ever have had in the past.

Anyone with access to the net & ability to write can get ebooks out there, I have couple of friends that have done that, paid for view or download of full book past sample chapter for one, he has since sold a series or two to Baen.

While the other friend has sold couple non fiction essays, that he originally posted as blog posts.

This friend has not sold fiction yet, but has won a minor prize or two in writing contests with his fiction, and certainly gets some additional blog revenue from his fiction.

That is without Amazon, Amazon also makes it easy for people to self publish with Amazon, and you set the prices.

Self Published with Amazon give author a much higher cut of the sales, than the traditional dead tree publishers ever did.

[edited for spelling & etc]

What's at stake here is that Amazon uses a proprietary e-book format, one that you can't read in other e-readers other than Kindle (unless you know what you're doing). So if the nook and other e-readers got bumped out and the Kindle were the only reader available, Amazon could drop support from their e-readers for other formats other than their own and hence leave other e-book retailers without a market.

In other words, ebook retailers need their e-readers to create a market for their e-books.

But afaik kindles never supported other book formats, so how can they drip support for something nonexistent

I have neither a Nook nor a Kindle. Instead, I have an Android-based e-reader from Pandigital. While its OS is highly dated (Android 2.1, bleh), it does come with an Barnes & Noble app for reading ebooks from B&N. But, with it being Android, I was able to sideload other apps onto it, including the Kindle For Android app and several other reading apps. I can pretty much read any e-book format now, including PDFs and comic books.

It's a shame I can't do it all from one app, though... I wish someone would make an app that supported every format available (including Kindle and B&N) AND was easy to use. it would be so nice to have all of my ebook content on one "bookshelf", as it were.

I do wish my Pandigital Novel was more powerful and ran a newer Android version. I'm sorely tempted to get either a Google Nexus 7, or, more likely, some 8-10in. Android tablet.

I have neither a Nook nor a Kindle. Instead, I have an Android-based e-reader from Pandigital. While its OS is highly dated (Android 2.1, bleh), it does come with an Barnes & Noble app for reading ebooks from B&N. But, with it being Android, I was able to sideload other apps onto it, including the Kindle For Android app and several other reading apps. I can pretty much read any e-book format now, including PDFs and comic books.

It's a shame I can't do it all from one app, though... I wish someone would make an app that supported every format available (including Kindle and B&N) AND was easy to use. it would be so nice to have all of my ebook content on one "bookshelf", as it were.

I do wish my Pandigital Novel was more powerful and ran a newer Android version. I'm sorely tempted to get either a Google Nexus 7, or, more likely, some 8-10in. Android tablet.

I have one as well. It is not bad for reading thought the battery life sucks a bit. I got my wife the Nook Simple Touch and I probably should have got one as well. For reading they are fantastic. Pretty easy to use with Calibre and Adobe Digital editions. Haven't root it yet though I think that day is getting sooner since Amazon have better deals on books.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

I think it comes down to the fact that B&N's website is a barren wasteland compared to Amazon. Search for your favorite book title on either website and compare the information available. B&N presents the bare minimum along with a handful of reviews if you're lucky. Amazon suggests related titles based on the author, subject and reader recommendations. That's on top of the plentiful reviews.

B&N should have looked at Amazon and said "We can do it better." Instead, to this day they treat the Nook and the book business as two different entities. Heck, their CEO wants to split the two. They cannot possibly compete against Amazon when their own company is divided.

The ebook market isn't going anywhere soon. Most people already have a tablet and a cellphone, carrying a dedicated e-reader is often more hassle than its worth. They were born because tablets used to be bulky, rather slow and had short battery life, and won't be able to compete with future tablets at all. I'm not saying it'll die out, but it will be a niche product for people with specific purposes, such as people traveling in remote areas. B&N should drop the Nook reader altogether. They're not going to win against Amazon, and even the latter is migrating towards multimedia tablets.

Just a disclaimer, I have a kindle, just becaat dieuse I've used Amazon for ages and mainly cause they had a larger selection - I don't know how they compare now.

I had a the original kindle and loved having a light weight e-reader that was light enough to carry anywhere and a one month charge. Getting a backlit device was great for home and late night reading, but I miss having a super light, super crisp, long lasting battery for reading on the go. And e-ink does give better resolution but I can't afford both.

I have a classic Nook, bought unseen when they announced it, a simple touch and a simple touch with glowlight. I love these things. They are really really good for reading.When it came to buying a tablet, I went for the Nexus 7, because the Nook tablets are locked down too much. Locking the device down was a big mistake.

As a Nook Tablet owner, they locked the bootloader making things very difficult even though they kept the bootloader open on the Color, the device that preceded the Tablet. Given that the Kindle Fire was open, meant that most people preferred that instead. Sure sales from tech enthusiasts may not be a big chunk of change but it is still sales. I would have loved to replace my Tablet with one of the HD models, but with a locked bootloader - no chance. Any head way they made with the hacker community was lost once the Nook Tablet came out. It sucks when I see people putting Android 4.0 on their Kindle Fires and I have to wonder what could have been!

Also their ecosystem sucked. Music and video was an after thought. They had their own curated store and they never had any FREE apps. A popular title like Angry Birds was $4.99.... in an app world where every other device has it for $0.99 or free! Amazon had their own curated store but even they priced fairly and offered free apps too. B&N's limited app quantity didn't help matters either.

Spec wise their tablets beat all the others out of the water which is a shame because they deserve better. But even the greatest specs won't work miracles when you have management making bad decisions.

I have a classic Nook, bought unseen when they announced it, a simple touch and a simple touch with glowlight. I love these things. They are really really good for reading.When it came to buying a tablet, I went for the Nexus 7, because the Nook tablets are locked down too much. Locking the device down was a big mistake.

Depends, were people treating the Nook like they're going to be treating the Ouya? Buy it so they can use it for something other than it's intended purpose? In the Nook's case, as a cheap Android tablet, while buying little to no B&N content. And in the Ouya's case, as a cheap XBMC box, without buying any of the games?

Also their ecosystem sucked. Music and video was an after thought. They had their own curated store and they never had any FREE apps. A popular title like Angry Birds was $4.99.... in an app world where every other device has it for $0.99 or free! Amazon had their own curated store but even they priced fairly and offered free apps too. B&N's limited app quantity didn't help matters either.

There apps ecosystem left something to be desired, but free apps isn't one of them. They have free apps, even free books too.

At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

It's hard to think of any Nook that's not a good product. B&N seemed to be doing all the right things - they were the first major brand to market a cheap tablet (the original Nook Color, that could be rooted and have CM installed and shipped over 18 months before the Nexus 7) and first with an internally-lit eInk screen. Their prices were always reasonable, if not always absolute bottom-dollar. The only real complaints were quibbles about a lack of polish.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

Well to begin with Amazon does not ignore rest of the world. You can be damn sure that people in Europe are going to buy from local stores as our laws grant us a lot more rights than american ones not to mention shipping fees and delivery times over the atlantic are not super exciting.

Amazon exists in every major market and it's a huge difference when they are local as compared to when you are serviced by another country. So ignoring rest of the world probably doesn't pay off even if they do ship over here (5$ to EU is fine, 8 days is not).

I still have the original Nook, and with that have never felt a need to upgrade. It's simply wonderful for reading on, I can only imagine the newer versions with built-in lighting are even better. But, does that warrant buying a whole new e-reader? Unfortunately, not for me. I'll stick with my "OG" Nook until I run it into the ground, which because of it's great quality looks to be quite a ways into the future.

On the more colorful and tablet-y side of things, I just can't see myself getting a locked down tablet when I can just get a Nexus 7, or similar product, and turn it into a Nook HD with the Nook app, plus turn it into a Kindle with the Kindle app, then turn it into a Kobo e-reader with the Kobo app (or any number of other e-reader apps that are available)... all while still having all the benefits a full fledged tablet.

At least the first Nook is. I still have mine, and use it regularly. Never saw the point of getting one of the new ones.

It's hard to think of any Nook that's not a good product. B&N seemed to be doing all the right things - they were the first major brand to market a cheap tablet (the original Nook Color, that could be rooted and have CM installed and shipped over 18 months before the Nexus 7) and first with an internally-lit eInk screen. Their prices were always reasonable, if not always absolute bottom-dollar. The only real complaints were quibbles about a lack of polish.

I think this is ultimately more a story of brand-power and marketing than anything else - B&N just didn't generate the sort of public awareness that it needed to compete with Amazon.

Well to begin with Amazon does not ignore rest of the world. You can be damn sure that people in Europe are going to buy from local stores as our laws grant us a lot more rights than american ones not to mention shipping fees and delivery times over the atlantic are not super exciting.

Amazon exists in every major market and it's a huge difference when they are local as compared to when you are serviced by another country. So ignoring rest of the world probably doesn't pay off even if they do ship over here (5$ to EU is fine, 8 days is not).

Maybe English is not your first language but the flow of your sentences makes no sense making it hard to understand what you are trying to say.

What "more rights" are you talking about? Also, Europe is not a country and not every country in Europe is part of the EU so laws could vary.

If Amazon "exists in every major market" why would they be "shipping over the Atlantic?"